Camp ACT Meeting!

On Sunday 29, 2012 the Window on America Center hosted Camp ACT Planning Meeting for 19 America Peace Corps Volunteers from Rivnenska, Lvivska, Volynska Oblast.

The present audience talked about the issues related to camp presentation, team presentations, application review, organizing chaperones.

This camp will be held in early July in Shatsk and will provide a chance for Ukrainian pupils to practice English, explore creativity and develop new skills in leadership, teamwork, and healthy lifestyles.

The Camp ACT staff is made up of half Ukrainians and half American Peace Corps Volunteers, which will give all participants a truly special international experience.

The Third Discussion with Lutsk Window on America Center. The Topic was Animal Rights (Federal and State Laws on Animal Protection; Animal Shelters.

The U.S.-Ukraine Foundation, a member of the U.S. Center for Citizen Diplomacy (USCCD), helped launch a pilot project, a series of monthly discussions between Americans and Ukrainians via the Window on America Centers in Lutsk, in cooperation with the U.S. Department of State, U.S. Embassy in Kyiv and USCCD.

In the framework of that  pilot project on April 25, 2012 the third discussion with Lutsk Window on America Center was held and it covered the topic of Animal Rights (Federal and state laws on animal protection; animal shelters.

 The format of discussion was a Skype video conference call: 40 minutes speaker's presentation, and one hour - Q&A. The work language was English.

The speaker on the topic of Animals Rights was Adam Parascandola the Director of Animal Cruelty issues for Human Society of the United but in his former job he was a Director of a large municipal shelter. The information that Adam Parascandola had shared with the audience  was interesting and really helpful. Adam talked about US cruelty laws and their development including felony, federal coverage, etc., in addition to the roles of animal shelters and their work to end cruelty.

The present audience (mainly the Director of Lutsk shelter, the Co-director of the Zoo, the volunteers that worked at the shelter) was interested in the following issues:

shelters and their financing;

the role of animal shelters and their work ;

 the role of volunteers and sponsors;

 animals sterilization.

A big round of applauses at the end of the meeting – in such way the audience thanked Adam Parascandola for informative discussion!

English Community Club "Let's Travel to Colorado".

On April 22, 2012 Window on America Center gathered 15 English Community Club Members to talk about Colorado. Terry Mettison, American Peace Corps Volunteer led the discussion. Melissa Krut, Dominic Huether helped to involve the participants into the lovely discussion.

After slide show presentation made the WOA Center coordinator the participants of the Club were proposed to talk on the four topics. The first topic covered United States and Colorado Geography, followed by Colorado’s History, Colorado’s Places of Interest and Famous People.

Since the curriculum of the Community Club was designed in the way to focus more on speaking the audience spent a wonderful time discussing State of Colorado with native speakers.

 We are glad that the participants found it to be useful and interesting meeting.

Meeting with Teachers of English Language

On April 19, 2012 the Window on America Center in Lutsk hosted a creative meeting for the 18 teachers of English language from local and regional schools.

 The WOA coordinator Olena Pyshniuk talked about the Center, its resources, numeriuos programs. The main emphasis was made on the programs that help the people to practice their English with native speakers, mainly Community Clubs meetings.

  

  

The Guest speaker, former English language teacher Kovalchyk Volodumur told about his experience in teaching English at schools, gave practical advice on how to use visual aids in teaching pupils and students.

At the end of the meeting Kovalchyk Volodumur made a presentation of his book «Conversion in English. Some trends in lexical evolution» where he analyzed the behaviour of one of these new word formation methods.

Let's Watch Movies Together!

On April 08, 2012 the Window on America Center in Lutsk gathered 21 people to take part in the Movie Club meeting.

The audience  was proposed to watch the movie «E.T.;Extra-Terrestrial». The film was shown in English and included subtitles.

Melissa Krut, Donimic Huether and Terry Mettison, American Peace Corps Volunteers in Lutsk, led the related speaking discussion after the movie so the participants had a great chance to practice their English with native speakers.

The Community Club «April Fool’s Day Celebration».

On that day the Window on America Center was visited by 15 readers who took part in the Community Club «April Fool’s Day Celebration».

The meeting was arranged in the following way:

·      April Fool’s Day: Origin and History;

·        Problems with this Explanation;

·        Observance Around the World.

The Club was held by Donimic Huether and Terry Mettison, American Peace Corps Volunteers in Lutsk. The audience was introduced to the theme of April Fool’s Day through the ‘fool’s day’ slide show presentation made by Olena Pyshniuk, by the Window on America Center coordinator in Lutsk.

Then we had a speaking activity (game -each person says three sentences-- usually about him/herself-- and the listeners have to decide which is the lie. Then comes the discussion about why we don't believe this statement.)

At the end of the meeting the visitors discussed the birth of April Fool's day, explored humor by creating their own practical joke and left the Center in a good mood)))

The Skype Discussion "Libraries in the United States of America and in Ukraine" was held at the Window on America Center in Lutsk.

 

 

 

On Wednesday, March 28^th  in the framework

 of the pilot project the Skype discussion was

 held at the Window on America Center in Lutsk.

 

The topic of discussion was Libraries in the United States of America and in Ukraine.

The speaker on the topic of Libraries was

 Jurij Dobczanskyj, Senior Cataloging Specialist

 at the U.S. Library of Congress.

 19 visitors (among them students and two teachers of Volyn college of Art, librarians of Volyn Research Library) came to the Center on that day to have a live talk with Mr. Dobczanskyj. The visitors introduced themselves and discussed professional issues, voiced their thoughts and asked questions on that topic.

During one hour Skype discussion the present audience could learn more about the Library of Congress, the largest library in the world and America's oldest federal cultural institution, its services and cooperation with clients, principles of library fund creation and updates, etc.

The Skype discussion allowed the audience to interact with the American colleague, to get profound answers on the following questions:

• Place of the Library in community life;
• Computer technologies in modern library.

After a talk with Jurij Dobczanskyj the present audience was proposed to watch the video about the Library of Congress, the organization of the automation and information in the Library, managing the electronic library collection. The slide show presentation about the Library of Congress, the largest library in the world, with millions of books, recordings, photographs, maps and manuscripts in its collections, made by the Window on America Center coordinator Olena Pyshniuk was designed to acquaint the visitors with enhancement of services for the readers, including those with disabilities and Ask a Librarian Service in the Library.

The meeting theme – to discuss a topic of Libraries in the USA and in Ukraine and to discover the place of library in community life – was successfully achieved.

The conference was videotaped so everyone can visit WOA Center Blog http://woalutsk5.blogspot.com/ and find it at the Video Bar.

Information Day

 On Wednesday, March 28^th the visitors of the Library were proposed to get acquainted with new arrivals to the Window on America Center. 

One could find there information about the Most

Competitive Colleges in the USA, its application,

study strategies, etc.

We hope that this literature will be helpful in guiding the college-bound visitor to right choices in the decision-making area of college application.